Only Elitists Oppose Monsanto’s Global Domination Plan

So sayeth Hugh Grant (CEO of Monsanto, not the fay English thespian). From Gawker:

Monsanto is a $58 billion multinational Pesticide-‘n-Frankenfood corporation that has moved on from selling Agent Orange to its new business of patenting actual seed genomes and thensuing farmers who try to grow crops without paying the Monsanto corporation. Who could be opposed to such a thing. Only the elites, clearly.

Nobody really knows what sort of social and environmental consequences might result from the widespread use of genetically engineered Monsanto seeds that are resistant to Monsanto pesticides. I mean, what kind of weirdo would question whether that system has a downside? Latte-swilling, Mark Bittman-worshipping elitists, according to Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant:

“There is this strange kind of reverse elitism: If I’m going to do this [meaning “not bombard the world with genetically modified seeds and pesticides and also destroy any farmer who attempts to buck the system”], then everything else shouldn’t exist,” Grant said at Monsanto’s St. Louis headquarters yesterday. “There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.”…

“And the sad piece of this is, it ends up either or,” Grant said. “So you get conventional agriculture or broad scale or however you define it, and organic. I think we’re going to look back on this period and say, How on earth did that ever become the fight that it became.”

Alternately, we might look back on this period and say “Yes, May of 2013 is the date to which we need to send our Terminators back in time in order to stop the Monsanto people from distributing their Frankenseeds which will eventually decimate life on earth.” I know, I know— typical elitist reaction…

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This is the real purpose of culture war. It’s a tool of domination by the plutocracy.

PeaceLovePie

It’s diversionary to call anyone who doesn’t want glyosate pesticides and gmo plants with bad DNA that causes cancer and other problems covertly. Gmo and unlabeled gmo just ain’t ok to most people.

Call 90% of people elite to distract.

Frank_Black

I still enjoy how the GMO issue is front and center like the straw man tactic it is, and not the real danger posed by Monsanto’s business plan which is a global food monopoly. GMO dangers are speculative, anti-trust monopolies are not, they are a real danger from unregulated corporations.

Rhoid Rager

I’m not even sure I even understand your argument, because it’s precisely the genetic manipulation that allows both the legal and physical monopolization of the food system through patents and terminator seed/herbicide-resistant technology.

http://wildernessvagabonds.com/ Mike Lewinski

I don’t think that we will ever see terminator seeds for sale. It seems that Monsanto bought another company that developed the technology in order to keep it from the market.

Via Wikipedia’s entry for “Genetic use restriction technology”

“Because some stakeholders expressed concerns that this technology might lead to dependence for small farmers, Monsanto Company, an agricultural products company and the world’s biggest seed supplier, pledged not to commercialize the technology in 1999. Customers who buy patented transgenic seeds from Monsanto must sign a contract not to save or sell the seeds from their harvest, which preempts the need for a “terminator gene”. The Delta and Pine Land Company, which had performed greenhouse tests of Terminator seeds and owned a Canadian patent on Terminator granted on October 11 2005, intended to commercialize the technology, but D&PL was acquired by Monsanto in 2007.”

I know the terminator seed angle is one of the most emotional and powerful arguments against Monsanto. I sense that many opponents wish they actually would deploy it, because it would give them some more substantial ammunition.

When you find yourself wishing your enemies were more evil than they actually are, it may be a sign that your struggle has taken you down to their level.

Rhoid Rager

When a company can sue farmers for having a specific kind of plant growing on their land because seeds drifted on the wind, it is, by default, the same function as having the seed genetically-programmed to make the plant infertile (terminator technology). Farmers are impoverished because of this. At any rate, why shouldn’t Monsanto be biding their time to introduce terminator biotechnology to the market once biodiversity is sufficiently destroyed through the current use of their manufactured herbicides? Their corporate policy is a kind of scorched earth tactics, but, like the banks, they don’t directly do it themselves, they convince others to do it for them by promising good yields. The world is full of broken promises, and that won’t last.

Andrew

That’s like saying cancer is a straw man to distract us from AIDS. I agree about Monsanto’s business plans, but there’s a lot of evidence GMOs are dangerous. People should be able to be conscious of two problems at once.

Harold

I’d love it if you’d cite a single study that hasn’t been horribly discredited.

echar

Yes but people are dying from cancer, you heartless person!

Ittabena

We sell a lot of Gluten free food at the market where I work. If they knew who you were I could tell them that this is just a straw man tactic and that their health issues are only distracting us from the the real danger. I am sure they would feel better about having to buy food that tastes like cardboard.

Similarly, after learning about HFGMCS (High Fructose Genetically Modified Corn Syrup) I cut it out of my diet. The reason was because when I drank a coke – from America – my stomach felt bad, but if I drank one from Mexico – real sugar – I felt fine. But the result was surprising.

I had been on Prilosec OTC for three years. Took it every day. But, after two or three weeks of not consuming any HFGMCS I no longer needed the medicine nor had Acid Reflux. I have been fine ever since.

Since then I have spoken with a European Dr. who lives near here. He told me that this makes perfect sense, and then explained how the whole thing works. Had I gone to an American Dr. for this he would have – if I had insurance – switched me to the more expensive Nexium and sent me out the door. BTW both medications named above do not “fix” the problem, they just mask the pain and further weaken the stomach acid thereby actually making the problem worse.

Since then I have helped numerous people to quit needing these medications, Mexican Coke sales have multiplied dramatically, and we have some very devoted customers who think I hung the moon.

Personally I have to agree with what Andrew said; “People should be able to be conscious of two problems at once.”

Jin The Ninja

just an fyi:

coca cola plants the worldover, but particularly those in the 3rd world, use vast amounts of drinkable groundwater for which they pay nothing or next to nothing- which is heinous, but even moreso since many of those places have multiple issues with the availability of fresh / clean drinking water in the first place.

Ittabena

Yeah, I considered that, but been drinking it for years and no health problems so far, and no acid reflux “disease” anymore. I also heard about the drinking water in Mexico City. But here is how my reasoning goes;

The last Presidente of Mexico was Presidente Fox, who also ran Coca-Cola in Mexico before becoming El Presidente. So, here you have a poor country where the only people who really have the money to buy all this Coke are not going to keep buying it if it keeps making them sick. And they drank it enough to make it the top selling soft drink south of the border.

Likewise, I doubt using questionable water in the soft drinks was going to help him make the transition to politics, and I’m sure he knew that.

I could see Coke grabbing up all the decent water and leaving the crap for the peasants. Vicente’s customer voting base can afford to buy water just like they buy their Coke. I see us doing it every day, and we are presently exporting our way of life around the world, so.

However on the other side of the coin, the last two places I’ve lived have been on private wells. One in Mississippi and now in Washington State.

In Mississippi I was in a campground on the historic Mississippi River. Called Cutoffs, there are thirteen of them up and down the Mississippi. There is even one in Louisiana that is called Cutoff, LA. These came into being when the Army Corps of Engineers cut straight waterways for the ships to pass through, they made the curves into horseshoe lakes. The idea, of course, was to aid in shipping, and it occurred right after the cross country railroad building slowed down.

The well I was on was owned by the campground owner and we were surrounded by woods and water from the river. The water was tested and certified safe, but you could not drink it, ever.

When new neighbors moved in across the street they asked me if there was anything they should know. I told them not to drink the water. Not even to make coffee with it. The next morning they did it anyway. They hadn’t brought any water, didn’t mention that to me, and wanted coffee before they ran into town to get some.

It was a good thing they had two bathrooms, they told me, because by the time they had finished their first cup they’d found out I wasn’t exaggerating.

In Washington it is a little better, as you would expect. My water passes inspections but the report says that there are slight contaminants. I buy water to drink, but I do make coffee with the tap water, after I check the color.

I know that sounds scary if you’ve always had city water, but if you’re used to wells you know that anytime the landlord, or you, power down the water pressure, and then bring it back up, there is a rusty color in your water for a while. Since the landlord doesn’t tell us when he’s going to do this, the tenants drain all the pressure in the line while it’s down, making the condition all the worse.

I live close to a river now as well, but this one is the cleanest salmon hatchery in the State, and there is a locally famous waterfall just upstream from me. And yet a friend of mine who lives in the RV park just across the river was recently hospitalized for Giardia which the Dr. said was caused from drinking crappy water. Different well, different landlord. However, Giardia was one of the warnings listed on the information sheet for the H1N1 vaccine, and my friend did have the shot.

So I guess what I am saying is that I am making an educated guess here, but have to point out that I feel a whole lot better now than when I had Acid Reflux, and Mexican Cokes taste like ours used to. I mean they will bring back memories, if you’re old enough.

http://www.facebook.com/fiveofdiamonds Dennis Vander Houwen

I’m still trying to process “reverse elitism”. WTH is that?

Anarchy Pony

I think it’s when us plebeians try and act better than our corporate masters.

Mick-Doscious

Sort of like “reverse racism”…it does not exist. It is elitism, pure and simple. Funny that someone that wants to control all the food in world calls someone else Elitist.

winstonsmith

Again: how would someone bring Monsanto down?

Juan

The dude just looks like a fucking James Bond villian.
But you know, I don’t wanna be seen as an elitist, god forbid, so I will support Monsanto.

BuzzCoastin

> May of 2013 is the date to which we need to send our Terminators back in time
in order to stop Monsanto

way too late for dat!
Monsanto Grade #2 GMO Corn
permeates the Amerikan diet
this has been true for decades now

anything that’s processed, fried or sweetened has it
all grocery store meat is fed with Monsanto Grade #2 GMO Corn
it’s in the car you drive too